Although after the 2008 election, President Obama was critical of American foreign policy towards Putin’s Russia. President Obama was so confident that he was going to have a different relationship with Russia that his then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a photo-op resetting American-Russian relations.

Lavrov says “it was the invention of Hillary Clinton and Obama administration.” Mr. Lavrov told Bloomberg that he had a very good relationship with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin had good personal relations with former President George W. Bush, The Weekly Standard reported. Mrs. Clinton presented Mr. Lavrov with a “reset” button in 2009 that erroneously had the word “overcharged” written on it. The gesture was meant to symbolize a new day of diplomacy between the new nations.

Since the ‘reset’, Russia has invaded Eastern Ukraine, annexing the Crimean Peninsula; threatened NATO members with military actions; supported Iran’s pursuit of an atomic bomb; granted asylum to Edward Snowden; joined with China in constant cyberattacks on the American online mainframe; and for the last several months Russian fighter jets have been doing Top Gun-styled fly-by ‘buzzing’ of American warships in the Black Sea, Mediterranean, and the Far East Pacific Ocean…with little or no response from the Obama Administration.

During the 2012 Presidential Debates Republican nominee Mitt Romney warned of the growing Russian threat, only to be belittled by President Obama.

One year earlier, President Barack Obama had described Assad’s potential use of chemical weapons as “a red line” that would have “enormous consequences” and “change my calculus” on American military intervention in Syria’s civil war. When Assad appeared to cross that line, Obama ordered the Pentagon to prepare to attack.

But Obama backed off and didn’t respond to the WMD attack.

Extremist groups, including what would eventually become ISIS, exploited the decision not to attack, gaining a foothold by promising Syrian locals what the U.S. had not: protection from the Assad regime.

Yet Russia has become the Clinton Campaign’s scapegoat for the damning emails that have been revealed by Wikileaks. Of course Putin has denied this as reported in the Los Angeles Times:

The Kremlin has denied the hacking accusations, and Putin called them a ploy to divert public attention from issues such as gun violence or the United States’ growing debt.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has called Trump a puppet of Putin. Putin said in televised remarks at a gathering in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

“Does anybody seriously think that Russia can somehow influence the opinion of the American people? Is America some banana country? America is a great power,”

Military actions have resumed in Syria, this time it was the Americans that broke the cease fire. Though it has been reported in the media, the Baltimore Sun did report:

Do not chalk this up to paranoia. The U.S.-led coalition air strikes on known Syrian army positions killing scores of troops just five days into the September cease-fire — not to mention statements at the time by the most senior U.S. generals — were evidence enough to convince the Russians that the Pentagon was intent on scuttling meaningful cooperation with Russia.

U.S.-Russia geopolitical competition will not be confined to Ukraine, but a string of proxy wars is also not in the offing. However, U.S.-Russia collaboration on Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan will suffer. The United States might use economic sanctions against Russia in an effort, Iran-style, to split the Russian elite and provoke the resentment of ordinary Russian people against their government. Although the static military confrontation is unlikely to be resurrected, nuclear deterrence will be reaffirmed, and competition in the military sphere will spread to other areas, from cyberspace to conventional prompt global strike.

This will be the dawn of a new period, reminiscent in some ways of the Cold War from the 1940s to 1980s. it may not last nearly as long; and — crucially — it will not be the defining conflict of our times.

Yet, it will be for real.

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